Briefly

Posted: Monday, October 16, 2000

By The JUNEAU EMPIRE

Mayor, assembly members to be sworn in

Juneau - The changing of the guard will become official tonight.

New Mayor Sally Smith and new Juneau Assembly members Dale Anderson and Marc Wheeler will be sworn in during the assembly meeting scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in assembly chambers. Smith replaces Dennis Egan, who did not run for re-election in the Oct. 3 city election. Anderson ran unopposed for the District 2 assembly seat. Wheeler beat PeggyAnn McConnochie for the areawide seat.

Current assembly member Ken Koelsch, who beat write-in candidate Maridon Boario for the District 1 seat, also will be sworn in.

Some city fees may increase

Juneau - Charges for some land-use fees from the city Community Development Department will go up if an ordinance on the Juneau Assembly's agenda is approved tonight.

Zoning changes will go from $250 to $500 under the ordinance. Variances will increase from $300 to $350 and minor lot consolidations will go from $75 to $125. Other fees will increase and some new charges will be added for other actions, such as access driveways in rights of way.

The Juneau Planning Commission has already reviewed the changes. The assembly OK'd the increases during the last city budget cycle.

Former Iditarod winner dies

FAIRBANKS - Mushing legend Carl Huntington, who won the 1974 Iditarod, died Friday in an apparent suicide, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Huntington is best known for winning both the Open World Championship, also known as the Fur Rendezvous sled dog race, and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It's an unusual feat because the Open World Championship is a sprint race and the Iditarod is a distance race.

"It's never been done before and after," said musher George Attla of North Pole. "People believe the distance dogs are really good for distance; the sprint dogs good for sprint. He proved it wasn't so."

Huntington, 52, from Galena, had been estranged from his family for around two weeks, said Trooper Darrel Christensen, investigator in the case. He recently had been brought up on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, the trooper said.

There was a note Huntington wrote to his family. "It didn't say anything about him committing suicide. It just said he had to go," Christensen said.

Flags lowered for bombing victims

JUNEAU - Flags are lowered out of respect for the sailors who died aboard the USS Cole.

Gov. Tony Knowles ordered flags on state buildings be lowered to half-staff Friday in accordance with President Clinton's order that all U.S. flags be lowered after a bomb attack on the U.S. destroyer killed 17 sailors in Yemen.

U.S. officials say suicide bombers blew up a small boat next to the destroyer, ripping a hole 30 feet high and 40 feet wide at the ship's waterline. A Homer couple's son was among the survivors of the attack. Ensign Rick Heckert was uninjured in Thursday's blast.

Jet aborts takeoff after tires blow

ANCHORAGE - A Northwest Airlines cargo jet aborted its takeoff run early Sunday after at least two tires blew out, airline officials say. The three members of the 747 crew were unhurt.

The plane went off the end of the runway at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport about 12:30 a.m. and came to rest in the mud about 300 feet beyond the paving. That led to the closing of one of the airport's three runways, probably for at least a couple of days.

At least two tires blew on the airplane, according to Northwest spokesman Scott Ingham. Much of the cargo was unloaded from the aircraft and some electronic equipment was shipped to New York.

Northwest is expanding its cargo operation at the Anchorage airport, and the cargo operation recently acquired two more Boeing 747-200 aircraft, boosts its fleet to a dozen.